This invention relates to an apparatus for depositing particulate material or soil onto plastic film extending over a face of a landfill/or other location.
U.S. Pat. No 5,536,116 discloses a machine secured to or carried by a compactor or bulldozer. The machine had a roller for degradable plastic film. Above the roller, the machine was provided with a hopper structure which carries and distributes particulate material, typically soil, onto edges of the film as the compactor moves over the landfill and covers the landfill with film.
The hopper structure had two augers located within respective hoppers with the augers being oppositely handed and located in lower portions of the hoppers. Lower wall portions of the hopper were closely adjacent to flights of the augers. Each hopper had two discharge openings.
In use, the machine of U.S. Pat. No. 5,536,116 was traversed over the landfill and the film was unrolled from the roll to cover the landfill. At the same time, the augers were rotated to dispense gravel, dirt or other available material against the film to anchor the film until the covered area of the landfill had more waste deposited on it.
Prior to the development of the machine of U.S. Pat. No. 5,536,116, the practice of covering or backfilling waste in a landfill with available soil or the like was carried out for health reasons. Such backfilling was carried out periodically during the course of a day and certainly at the end of a working shift at the landfill. Backfilling with available soil, although necessary for health reasons, nevertheless had its disadvantages in that if no soil was available at the landfill, it would then need to be trucked in in considerable quantities. In addition, the very presence of this type of backfill reduced the capacity of the landfill for waste. These disadvantages lead to the development of the machine of U.S. Pat. No. 5,536,116.
This machine, by employing degradable film to cover waste in the landfill, did not unduly reduce the capacity of the landfill site even though available soil in relatively small quantities was employed to hold the film in place until it was covered with waste in a subsequent waste dumping operation.
Considerable energy was necessary to drive the augers in this earlier machine. The available soil often contained large rocks and other solids which could not be dispensed by the augers and readily jammed the augers leading to damage of the machine. In addition, the augers could only dispense relatively loose soils and tended to bind if the soil had a high clay content or was unduly moist.
Thus, the machine of U.S. Pat. No. 5,536,116 although providing an advance required suitable soil or the like to be transported to landfill sites to be used in the machine in place of soils with a high clay content or high large aggregate content normally available at the site. This proved undesirable.